SAN FRANCISCO / Change proposed in campaign financing

Suzanne Herel

Published
4:00 am PDT, Friday, October 29, 2004

A proposed new law would require the sponsor of any advertisement that mentions a political candidate by name within 90 days of an election to disclose the source of the group's funding and its expenditures.

The legislation -- co-sponsored by supervisors Sophie Maxwell, Aaron Peskin, Jake McGoldrick and Gerardo Sandoval -- is designed to close a loophole in campaign finance law that allows groups to engage in political advertising without filing financial disclosure forms with the city Ethics Commission provided their ads don't expressly urge a reader to vote for or against a candidate. These so-called "issue advocacy" ads -- that criticize or praise candidates without expressly calling for a vote for or against them -- aren't regulated by the city.

Two of the proposed law's co-sponsors, McGoldrick and Sandoval, have been hit hard with so-called issue advocacy advertisements in their re-election campaigns.

Downtown business interests are pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into those races to try to unseat the incumbents, and into the District 7 race, where they want to ensure Sean Elsbernd, the mayor's appointee, keeps his seat.